£23,000,000 payout voided by Betfair. Thousand Stars can land the Istabraq Festival Hurdle
There were amazing scenes on Betfair yesterday as one punter left themselves open to a potential £23m payout on Voler De Vadette at Leopardstown.
A three hour investigation was launched after an in running lay was placed on the favourite at odds of 29 as he crossed the line. Over £1.5m was matched at the price as he won by four and a half lengths. The lay of £21.3m, had it all been matched would have resulted in a £600m payout.
Betfair voided the bet, stating that an obvious technical error had been experienced, whilst punters were complaining, Tony Calvin, Betfair spokesman, wanted to point out that there was no commercial relationship between the layer and Betfair themselves, stating, “they are a customer”
Had it been paid out, it would have gone down as the best value bet of the year, of all time even.
With Voler La Vadette taking part yesterday, THOUSAND STARS will have less competition in trying to land the Istabraq Festival Hurdle today. 11/10 favourite as I write, Unaccompanied is his closest rival in the betting at 3/1. Oscars Well was held by Thousand Stars last time out and is rightfully 6/1, the same price as Edward O’Grady’s The Real Article whilstMoon Dice ran an encouraging fourth at Cheltenham at the Paddy Power meeting and may be worth some each way interest at double figure odds.